[Jewelry making - Article 00934] - Re: [Orchid] Still more torch questions

[GaPawn]

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    I've been waiting for someone to identify the "gray spongy stuff"
    that  fills nearly 100% of the interior of an acetylene cylinder,
    but since no one  has, I thought I'd throw this in..... 

    My first "real" job was as a traveling salesman for Selpac SE,
    selling  Sherwood high pressure compressed gas valves; (oxygen,
    nitrogen, argon, nitrous  oxide, etc,) as well as propane and
    acetylene valves. I sold primarily to  the welding industry in the
    SE, USA. If you check the valves on your tanks you  stand a better
    than a 50/50 chance of having a Sherwood valve on one of them. 

    One of our accounts, Union Carbide, was a major acetylene 
    manufacturer/filler. Right after I was hired on, my boss took me way
    back to the  back of one of the Union Carbide plants for an
    education from an  OLD-timer that he knew. The old fellow began his
    lecture by telling me  that the gas is manufactured from the
    mineral, carbide; a rock. This is  the stuff that is mixed with
    water to create the flame that was (and  sometimes still is) used to
    illuminate the old miners' and spelunkers' helmets.  I was told that
    acetylene was SO unstable that if it were not mixed  with acetone
    and cushioned by the "gray spongy stuff" in the cylinder, that as 
    little as a small coffee cup of the pure acetylene, if dropped on
    the floor  would have exploded and killed the 3 of us outright and
    that a whole  cylinder's worth would have leveled the 50' x 150'
    plant that we were standing  in (that always sounded a bit
    far-fetched to me, but I was never inclined  to experiment!). Then
    he went on to explain that the "gray spongy stuff"  that filled the
    bottle was, in fact, ASBESTOS!!! They actually had an  in-house
    supply of a ground asbestos slurry which they injected into new 
    cylinders then baked into a solid mass. SCARY stuff!!!!! I can still
    remember  that little educational session to this day! 

    That was over 25 years ago and they may not be using asbestos in 
    acetylene cylinders anymore, but I wouldn't bet on it. This is just
    another good  reason why suppliers should only EXCHANGE acetylene
    cylinders. It  is set up that way so that only qualified personnel
    in a suitable facility are  responsible for filling/maintaining what
    is not only essentially a bomb, but is  also a MAJOR carcinogen!!! 

    Having said all that, keep in mind that gas
    welding/brazing/soldering has a  LONG (over 150 years) and
    essentially SAFE history. If a person  of reasonable intelligence
    gets a little training and uses simple common  sense they should
    have nothing to worry about. 

    As for laying an acetylene cylinder on its side, its not a really
    good  practice, but as long as you allow plenty of time for the
    contents to settle  (overnight, to err on the long side!), it
    shouldn't ever cause you any  problems. 

    Personally, I prefer propane (LPG), because it is cheaper, so  much
    cleaner to use, and is sold in 20 lbs. tanks nearly  everywhere.
    Propane, though, has its own set of limitations and  drawbacks!!  
    ;-) 

Steve
Steve's Place
Jewelry Repair
While-U-Watch
http://hometown.aol.com/gapawn/indexsp.html

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